BHARATI PAWASKAR
Sanskrit is his mother tongue as since childhood both his parents conversed with him only in Sanskrit. A home-schooled boy the only child of Aparna and Devdatt Patil, Priyavrat learnt other languages or academic subjects from sources outside his home. The Patils run Shreevidya Pathshala at Rivona in South Goa where currently 35 students are seeking knowledge in the ancient Indian way of learning - Gurukul Pranali.
Growing up in an environment where students from different states, of different gender and age, each having different mother tongues live together as one big family “ all conversing in Sanskrit language and studying the ancient Vedic literature of Nyayashashtra and Vyakaranshastra, no wonder little Priyavrat could pick up the hard lessons as a kid. But that’s not what makes him different!
Then what is so great about this 16-year-old? It is the Tenali Mahapariksha that he answered recently and excelled, stealing the credit of being the youngest candidate to pass this toughest exam excelling it at one go. The curriculum is of six years and a student begins to learn it at the age of 15-16 but Priyavrat completed all 14 levels in just two years, and appeared for the Mahapariksha which is at the end of it. There are difficult granth (books) and even the examiner does not know what questions are to be asked to which student. The question paper is prepared by pandits not connected with Kanchi Math and are sent in sealed envelopes with only the initial of the student. There are questions, sub-questions, arguments and discussions which go on for hours. Facing the tough rounds Priyavrat answered all the questions, excelled, and secured first class which no one of his age had ever done.
Endorsing his success, Shree Kanchi Ved Vedanta Shastra Sabha of Shree Kanchi Kamkoti Peetham (Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu) has felicitated this son of Goa with a Mahavastra, Rs 1 lakh and a certificate, admiring that in their history of past 150 years no student has achieved such an incredible feat. And with this feat, Priyavrat has broken his father’s own record too. Pandit Devdatt Patil had passed the same exam in a single attempt when he was 29 which too was a record. No one had dared to break this record, with his own son did.
“Like father, like son! Priyavrat’s father, my husband Devdatt too has many records on his name and we are extremely happy seeing Priyavrat following his father’s footsteps,” exclaims the proud mother.
An MA, PhD in Nyayashastra, Aparna is currently playing two roles, that of a teacher and a mother, for the 35 young and old students at their Pathshala. “Our students come from age group 14-30 and nine of the 35 students are girls. No fees are charged for imparting knowledge. The students cook their own food; however, we all dine together on festive days,” she briefs. Priyavrat who learnt Ved and Nyayashastra from his father, studied Vyakaran Mahagranthas from Vyakaranratnam Pandit Mohan Shivnarayan Sharma, a resident teacher at their Pathshala. Today, Guru as well as Shishya, both have earned the same prestigious ‘Vyakaranratnam’ title.
Tweeting on Priyavrat’s success Padma Shree awardee Chamu Krishnashastri, founder of Sanskrita Bharati, had tagged India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sanskrit Bharati, a nonprofit organization that works to revive Sanskrit, a pan-Indian language in the Vedic and classical period which lost its place to derivative regional dialects in modern India. Replying to the tweet, PM too congratulated Priyavrat on his success and hoped that his success would inspire many more to take up studies in our ancient Shastras.
Master in both, Nyayashastra and Vyakaranshastra, Priyavrat’s father Devdatt shares that at his Pathshala in Rivona, admissions are given to one and all, irrespective of caste, creed or class. Devdatt who went to Pune after SSC to study Ved was impressed by a lecture on Nyayashastra and went to Varanasi to learn different granthas for four years. “Then I travelled to Kanchi to Goda Subramaniam Shastri who was a known Nyaya Pandit. But he was 80 and reluctant to teach me Shastras at that age. When I insisted, he took two promises from me, that I shall not leave my country and that I will start my own Gurukul Pathshala where I would share my knowledge free. I promised him both and here I am, fulfilling my promises,” shares a humble Devdatt who has been running the school for two decades, first in Pune and for the past four years in Goa, offering a six-year course for free. Six of his students have opened their own Pathshalas where they too teach free.
Admitting that after marriage, her husband became her Guru and Aparna continued learning with him. Their entire home reverberates with ‘Dev Vani’ (language of the gods) Sanskrit conversations as the students use it as common language of speaking with each other. Though there’s no fixed time for the school as such, all of them are engaged in learning from 5.30 am to 10.30 pm. “We eat, drink, sleep and breathe Sanskrit,” smiles Aparna who hopes that someday entire India would take pride in learning and speaking in one tongue Sanskrit, as today, irrespective of our individual mother tongues we all learn and speak English.
